Posted on 07/23/2005 4:14:04 AM PDT by demlosers
I don't know, that's why I mentioned it. Will they use EDT or Universal Time? Zulu?
Looks like the initial knee-jerk opposition is starting to fade, maybe this will have some momentum after bush leaves office.
That sounds like a good possibility. Sci Fi writers are concerned with such things. Marstime is already determined by the mere fact of the Rovers. Moontime hasn't been necessary, but will be when rovers and scientists start spending significant time there. Then we ought to settle on what to do in deep space and asteroids and other planets. It might be that the first expedition that needs to decide on the time scheme for a particular planet will determine the time scheme there from then on. Sci Fi writers will have to guess how the determinations will be made.
Most asteroid locations will use Zulu, Greenwich Mean Time.
Anything without an inherent diurnal cycle will have an artificial one imposed. We can adjust to different time frequencies, but our internal clocks need something.
On my fictional world, I had the clocks adjusted to have seven extra seconds in every minute, but still kept a twenty-four hour day.
The full French metric system included time. Decimal days, decimal hours, decimal minutes. What will we do on Venus. Mercury?
Venus will not have surface colonies in the foreseeable future. Mercury and Venus will follow Lunar time-keeping rules. Basically, Zulu time again. It's useful for communications.
NASCAR drivers are too modest and humble to be astronauts. You need a bigger ego to be an astronaut. Race drivers buy their own rides, and astronauts expect other people to pay for their thrills. Race drivers provide entertainment. Astronauts are dead bores.
Maybe this is the way we must structure Lunar and other colonies since we will be bound by our circadian rhythms!
The Lunar Day is 14 Earth Days as is the Lunar Night. No Earthling or Lunartic, (pardon the pun) would be able to work the day or night shift let alone overtime! With no weekends Jack would certainly be an overworked individual. A Lunar year would be 13 Lunar Days or 12 Earth Months. Are we getting confused yet?
BTW the only person who will not be confused is women since they already mark time by their Lunar Cycles. Maybe that's why women are Lunatics. And we bear the brunt of this Moon madness!
For the foreseeable future, manned expeditions will use ships time. If there is ever a self-sufficient settlement on a celestial body, they might make up their own time plan as a statement of local autonomy.
My point is that military or GMT will be the basis for all off planet activities. Whether it is a three day duration trip to the Moon or 8 months to Mars the base time must be such that we can be on the same page.
Of course, if you're a farmer on Ganymede, you may not care what time it is in London.
There will be local time, and coordinated time, just as there is now.
Ships are by nature autonomous vehicles. They have their own systems, such as ships power, ships voltage, ships frequency. Ships time can remain independent of local time such that day and night remain that of the home port. They might choose Greenwich time in outer space, or they might choose the local time of Houston or Kennedy. What is ships time for Space Shuttle Discovery during the present countdown?
You might also ask, " Has Free Republic become socialist"? This is statism with all the bark on: agreed national goals, huge pointless expenditures, crackpot visionary schemes, playing to a minority cadre with an agenda, and ignoring the emerging private sector in this field.
This is NOT what made America great; it is what kept Mussolini small.
What kind of fool thinks we need intergalactic weapons to deal with raggeddy ass bedouins?
Yes, it is. The myth of the yoeman farmer, self-reliant and all, has been a myth since the mid-fifties. 1850s that is. The Populist Party lost in 1896 and hasn't been heard from since, although several of its programs were subsequently adopted. The business of America is business, and that is the concern of gov't in the federal system.
The kind of fool on a hill who sees the sun going down, and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round.
Besides, I didn't say they should be ignored completely, just that we could face bigger problems.
Intergalactic? You exaggerate.
Are you a Republican congressional pork nut by any chance?
Turn over an FDR dime and what is on the flip side? A fasces.
Well said!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.